My Vista RC1 Outing [updated]

BUILD : Windows Vista RC1 (checked Build) 5600
EDITION : Windows Vista Ultimate
TARGET MACHINE : Acer Aspire 3002NLC with AMD Sempron 2800+, 512MB RAM, 15GB HDD (for the Vista partition)

It took me almost a week to download the Vista RC1. You could blame it a bit on my bandwidth and a lot more on my laziness to resume the download each time. The last few MBs almost got me crying like a child. The reviews I had read on the RC1 had kinda made me plan into making it my primary OS instead of XP temprorily, so that I could truly experience the whole thing.

The installation took about 90mins. Almost everything was plug n'play, including my laptop's XGA monitor (which wasnt a plug n'play for Beta 2). Now, that was a nice start! Yeah, I did say "almost everything" a sentence ago! It didnt take my Realtek soundcard as plug n' play..so I had to force it in. Then came the long list of devices, which I literally force fed into accepting.

1. Huawei datacard - for internet : tried compatibility mode etc. It gave me lots of trouble and didnt install it. Then, I found a cheeky trick. I went to DEVICE MANAGER > Selected the Datacard > Properties > Driver tab > Update Driver and pointed it to the exact location of the driver. It was my last shot and it worked! I then had to quickly activate Windows Vista. I just had 3 days to activate. Now, we'll talk about this bug a little later.

2. USB TV Box - for..umm..TV : Once again, not plug and play..so I shovelled the driver in just like before and I have gotten really used to it! It took my USB box, but, not the TV Player software. It said it had to reboot coz there was a DCOM failure.

3. SE W300i - Phone software - I was able to install it in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode..and it did work sweetly after that.

Now, for the Activation Bug I spoke in point "1".. During the numerous restarts I had to do trying to get the devices to work, the 14 days decreased to 3 days! Now..thats ODD!

I had enough with Hardware and drivers, so I decided to do some software installation:

Windows Live Messenger 8 - Installed normally and functional

Yahoo Messenger 8 - Got till the download screen and then it reported that it wasnt able to access a particular tmp file from the temp folder, so it exited and I wasnt able to install it after that!

IIS 7 and Web stuff - Present under "Turn on additional components" (or something similar to that!) in the Add/Remove programs, you have a whole range of new things you would come across. I only picked up IIS and all that goes with it. Installation took about 10mins and then it worked well enough. I didnt try to make anything, just did a http localhost to check if it had installed correctly. I just had a glance at the IIS Manager and it felt damn powerful. I dont know much about it, so, I preferred not to play around till I've read the following article and understood what I will be dealing with :

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/09/07/IIS-7.0-RC1.aspx

NOTE: I guess I was kinda done with the experimenting. Mind you, I turned off UAC till I completed installation, so that, I had no trouble along the way.

Other software problems :

IE 7 : Keep crashing each time I shift between tabs really quickly. It automatically restarted. You do get a "..encountered a problem.." box and then a "..restarting.." box.

If you try to work as fast as you do in XP, you would get some of the screen to "Not Responding". They do respond well in about 5 secs time. So you dont have to End Task.

What I liked:

There have been big improvements in performance. It worked much faster than the previous builds. I was even able to feel the transitions and fades much better. Also, lucky they did away with those pesky message boxes from the pre-RC1 days. Plug N'play is also getting there, I must say! Overall it is a big step forward - it is much much more stable, lesser apps crashed, performance is much better.

Footnote:

Eventhough Vista RC1 seemed a lot more powerful and true to some of the good reviews, I felt a bit let down by all that I have mentioned above. I still have it on Dual boot and my idea of making it my primary OS will need to wait a till the weekend..or..even till later today! I plan to do a much cleaner install giving it another 2 GB of HDD space. We'll see.

My whole experience with RC1, also had a "punch line" to it - "Upgrade your Laptop". I have been thinking about it, but, not for Vista's sake. I am guessing that normal users, who cant really afford to upgrade with technology are going to stick to XP, than, moving to Vista when it is finally released.

Ok, after reading all this, you must think I am a open source junkie..well..I am certainly not. I love MS and I dont wink while saying it. :)

I will do a complete review of RC1 once I am done with teh re-install.